Ephesians 2:3

2:3 among whom ¹  all of us ²  also ³  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ⁴  even as the rest… ⁵ 

Ephesians 6:9

6:9 Masters, ⁶  treat your slaves ⁷  the same way, ⁸  giving up the use of threats, ⁹  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ¹⁰  and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 6:12

6:12 For our struggle ¹¹  is not against flesh and blood, ¹²  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ¹³  against the spiritual forces ¹⁴  of evil in the heavens. ¹⁵ 

[2:3]  ¹ sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).

[2:3]  ² tn Grk “we all.”

[2:3]  ³ tn Or “even.”

[2:3]  ⁴ sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”

[2:3]  ⁵ sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.

[6:9]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:9]  ⁷ tn Though the Greek text only has αὐτούς (autous, “them”), the antecedent is the slaves of the masters. Therefore, it was translated this way to make it explicit in English.

[6:9]  ⁸ tn Grk “do the same things to them.”

[6:9]  ⁹ tn Grk “giving up the threat.”

[6:9]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “because of both they and you, the Lord is, in heaven…”

[6:12]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”

[6:12]  ¹² tn Grk “blood and flesh.”

[6:12]  ¹³ tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.

[6:12]  ¹⁴ tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.

[6:12]  ¹⁵ sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.